Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Sadie's Prayers

A mother robin built a nest in the candelabra on our front porch and the girls checked on the nest every single day to check the progress of the eggs. Unfortunately, on the day they found it, they TOUCHED it before they asked about it and so we were all worried that the mother bird would abandon the nest. Sadie was SO upset and worried and she prayed and asked God to please please PLEASE make the mother bird come back - she would feel responsible if the eggs didn't hatch. The next morning, she SAW the mama bird fly back into the nest and she was so excited... she came running into the house to tell me that "This is my very first answered prayer!!"

Later that week, Sadie lied to me about putting clean clothes into the laundry hamper (of all things). I called her on it and we finally ended up snuggling on the bed in the guest room with her crying. We talked about God and liars vs. lying. It was a hard night of parenting. She ended up with "no screens for a week" and that was hard for her. She has to learn to pay the consequences for her actions. Not that the lie was big, it was over nothing practically - but we have to nip it in the bud. She wasn't allowed to watch a movie when Grammie came over so she went upstairs to read her Bible!

On the day she started her summer dance camp she realized that she had no tutu or leotard that fit. So with 45 minutes to spare, we went on the fastest shopping trip in history to Gabe's and then to Burlington - and we prayed for God to please help us find tights, a leotard, and a tutu. And we did! Sadie made up a rhyme as we pulled in the parking lot: "We made it there with 4 minutes to spare!" It's amazing that God listens to the little things.

However, when I picked her up five hours later, she had had a terrible day and came out crying and just miserable. She said everything went wrong - she tripped over her own feet, she already knew everything, none of the girls would talk to her and they thought she was weird, it was too hot in there and she was sweaty, she ran out of water and she was thirsty...she went on and on about how awful it was. I was so upset... I kept trying to tell her how great she is, and how if nobody wanted to talk to her it was their problem, not hers... and that sort of thing. The truth, but it still hurts when you're a little girl. So the next day she decided she was going to try it again, but when we got there, she got really nervous and didn't want to go in so I asked her if she wanted to say a prayer, and so on the sidewalk in front of the ballet school, we prayed for her to have fun and not be scared and for her to make a friend. (Not to mention all of the praying I did the night before for her).... When I picked her up, she came out with a GIANT smile on her face and said "It was great! I loved it! I won the jumping leaping contest and I made friends and everyone was jealous because I had gummy bears for lunch! Our prayers worked, Mom! God even listens to little things too!"